repulsion
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re·pul·sion
(rĭ-pŭl′shən)repulsion
(rɪˈpʌlʃən)re•pul•sion
(rɪˈpʌl ʃən)n.
Repulsion
the gorge rises at it To find repugnant, to hold in revulsion; to feel disgust at; to be sickened or nauseated by; to turn one’s stomach. The gorge is the craw or stomach, and, by metonymy, its contents. The phrase is yet another owing its popularity and quite possibly its origin to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. On recalling the lively wit that once inhabitated the cold, decaying skull of Yorick then in his hands, Hamlet says:
How abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. (V, i)
The expression is still frequently encountered in literary or formal writing. Webster’s Third cites a recent usage by Pearl Buck:
When he tried to eat the flesh of his ox his gorge rose.
set the teeth on edge To repel, offend, or disgust; to jar or grate on one’s nerves, to irritate or annoy. This expression is derived from an ancient proverb as evidenced in Jeremiah 31:29-30:
In those days they shall no longer say: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” But every one shall die for his own sin; each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
The allusion is to the unpleasant, tingling sensation caused by sour or acidic foods.
I had rather hear a brazen
canstick turn’d,
Or a dry wheel grate on the
axle-tree;
And that would set my teeth
nothing on edge,
Nothing so much as mincing
poetry.
(Shakespeare, I Henry IV, III, iii)
A variation is put the teeth on edge.
stick in the craw To be difficult to accept or reconcile; to rub the wrong way; to be irritating, offensive, or annoying. The concept of swallowing is often used metaphorically for the acceptance or rejection of ideas. In this expression, which appeared in print by the 18th century, nonacceptance is conveyed by the image of something being stuck in one’s craw (crop or gullet). Variants of this expression include stick in the gullet or crop or throat.
There is one or two things that stick in my Crop. (The Deane Papers, 1775)
| Noun | 1. | repulsion - the force by which bodies repel one another force - (physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity; "force equals mass times acceleration" attraction, attractive force - the force by which one object attracts another |
| 2. | repulsion - intense aversion disgust - strong feelings of dislike | |
| 3. | repulsion - the act of repulsing or repelling an attack; a successful defensive stand stand - a defensive effort; "the army made a final stand at the Rhone" |